I created all my sources using the Free Form source type. At the time of creation, I should have chosen one of the existing Source Templates for most of these sources. What is the best way to change the source association assuming that is possible?
There isn’t a way to merge a free form source into a templated source. All the fields need to match when you merge sources, so it wouldn’t work. You will need to add a new source and manually add it to all the people/facts you want it used on.
I have lots of free-form sources. To large of a project to change them. They really don’t make any difference in your reports when you print them out. So there isn’t a pressing need to change them. Only when I’m adding new sources do I use a source template. I add an asterisks to the end of the source name to denote it’s the new templated source and not the older free form one.
Free Form sources transfer more transparently from RM to other systems via GEDCOM than do templated sources, with the possible exception of Ancestry Record sources between RM and an Ancestry Tree. If that is important and your targets do not import RM’s templated sources well, consider using the template to generate a draft Footnote Sentence and copy it to the Footnote Sentence of Free Form. Likewise for Short Footnote and Bibliography.
Thank you for the quick replies. I will keep the Free Form sources and consider using the templates for new ones. Is there any advantage to using the templates for sources?
For me the advantage of using source templates is it creates the footnote, short footnote and Bibliography all at the same time. Where as in Free Form I need to copy and paste what I want in each. On the flip side sometimes I just want to copy the citation already on a website and then the free form is much easier for me to use.
For consistency of style, type of content included, a template or guide provides an advantage over a blank field for the sentence. Now that could be an outboard template of your own choosing or even making, as in a spreadsheet.
I ended up rewriting almost all my citations using various templates depending on the type of source. But a common choice was “Website (with multiple databases).” The “free form” is great for highly irregular sources. My citations now look good on the NEHGS (register) Narrative report.
One issue I now have is the register report using “shortened version of footnotes.” Is there anyway to get the narrative report to always use the full footnote? For a report in progress the use of shortened footnotes can be problematic.
Copy the source template so your not using the built-in ones. Then you can copy the full footnote to the short footnote field to always use that.
Just as there is a report option for “Ibid” and one for combining footnotes, could there not be one to toggle Short Footnotes Off/On?
Rzamort1. Copying the full footnote and the short footnote field works as long as don’t click “Reset to Defaults.” The problem is I have hundreds of footnotes.
TomH. Yes, there should be a toggle Short footnotes off/on. That would be great.
What Renée suggested was to copy the source template to create a new, editable one (built-in templates are uneditable). Then, in the new source template, make the Short Footnote sentence template the same as that of the Footnote.
However, that doesn’t change the sources that use the built-in one and it is a convoluted process within RM to replace the old sources with new ones. With the right skills, it is a trivial procedure using SQLite to switch the sources to the duplicate source template.
OH my. I don’t even know what SQL is. Maybe more toggle switches could be offered in future updates.